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Background: Female sexual dysfunction (FSD) has been suggested to be correlated with the burden of cardiovascular risk factors. Aim: We aimed to evaluate the possible association between functional indices of vascular function and FSD scores in apparently healthy postmenopausal women. Methods: This cross-sectional study included 116 postmenopausal women who underwent assessment of endothelial function with measurement of flow-mediated dilation (FMD) of the branchial artery and arterial stiffness estimation with measurement of the carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity (PWV). We used the Greene Climacteric Scale to evaluate vasomotor symptomatology, the Female Sexual Function Index (FSFI) to evaluate FSD and the Beck Depression Inventory to evaluate mood disorder. Low sexual function was defined as an FSFI score <26.55. Outcomes: These included FSFI and low sexual function scores as well as measures of PWV and FMD. Results: Sexual function scores were associated with measures of blood pressure (normal vs low sexual function; systolic blood pressure: 120.2 ± 15.0 mm Hg vs 113.4 ± 14.6 mm Hg; analysis of covariance P =.026; diastolic blood pressure: 75.9 ± 10.5 mm Hg vs 70.3 ± 9.9 mm Hg; analysis of covariance P =.012; both adjusted for age, body mass index, current smoking, and PWV). Systolic blood pressure, but not diastolic blood pressure, was associated with FSFI (B = 0.249, P =.041) and PWV (B = 0.392, P <.001). PWV measures were associated with FSFI (B = −0.291, P =.047) and pulse pressure (B = 0.355, P =.017). FMD measures were also associated with FSFI (B = 0.427, P =.033). All models were adjusted for age, body mass index, current smoking, insulin resistance, vasomotor symptomatology, and Beck Depression Inventory. Clinical implications: Our findings demonstrate that lower scores of sexual function are associated with deteriorated vascular function mainly manifested as arterial stiffening, further contributing to systolic blood pressure changes. Strengths and limitations: The strength of this study is the carefully selected healthy sample of postmenopausal women, with simultaneous assessment of climacteric symptomatology and mood disorders. The limitations include the small sample size, the cross-sectional design, and the recruitment of consecutive outpatients of a university menopause clinic. Conclusion: Longitudinal studies and interventions to improve FSD should further assess the clinical relevance of these findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The present study aims to examine the association of the metabolic syndrome (MS) as well as of the triglyceride-glucose index (TyG-Index), a novel marker of insulin resistance, with subclinical atherosclerosis in a cohort of postmenopausal women, stratified according to their body mass index.Methods: A total of 473 informed-consenting, non-diabetic postmenopausal women, without overt cardiovascular disease, were included in this study. We aimed to compare the association between structural and functional indices of subclinical atherosclerosis (i.e. carotid artery intima-media thickness (IMT), flow-mediated dilation of the brachial artery, pulse wave velocity (PWV)) with the TyG-index or MS, separately for lean and overweight/obese women.Results: The TyG-Index correlated significantly with carotid IMT (r=0.155, p=0.012) and PWV (r=0.157, p=0.013) only in the group of lean women. Multivariate analysis showed that subclinical atherosclerosis was predicted by MS, in the overweight/obese group (OR=2.517, 95% CI: 1.078-5.878, p=0.033), and by the TyG-Index the lean group (OR=3.119, 95% CI: 1.187-8.194, p<0.001). Using a TyG-Index cut-off value of 8.0 in the lean subpopulation, women above the cut-off had 44.1% prevalence of subclinical atherosclerosis compared to 29.4% in women below the cut-off (p=0.043).Conclusions: The TyG-Index is associated with carotid atherosclerosis and arterial stiffness mainly in lean postmenopausal women, while the MS serves as a better predictor of subclinical atherosclerosis in overweight/obese women. The TyG-Index may prove a useful marker for identifying high-risk women in the normal-weight postmenopausal population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The menopause transition is associated with adverse changes in cardiometabolic risk factors. We aimed to examine the association of the metabolic syndrome (MS) and its features with indices of vascular structure and function in a population of asymptomatic postmenopausal women. A total of 473 informed-consenting, nondiabetic postmenopausal women were included in the study. The MS was defined according to the Joint Definition. We evaluated the association between the presence of MS and indices of vascular structure (carotid artery intima-media thickness (IMT); atherosclerotic plaques) and function (flow-mediated dilatation (FMD); pulse wave velocity (PWV)). The mean age of women was 56.4 ± 6.7 and the mean menopausal age was 7.91 ± 6.31. The MS was present in 17.3% of our population. Mean values of PWV increased linearly with the accumulation of features of the MS. IMT was higher in women with the MS compared to women without the MS (0.78 ± 0.12 mm vs. 0.74 ± 0.11,p = .003). Multivariate analysis showed that the presence of the MS was independently associated with common carotid artery IMT (b = 0.149,p = .001), PWV (b = 0.114,p = .012) as well as central systolic and diastolic blood pressure (b = 0.293,p < .001 andb = 0.163,p < .001 respectively). The presence of the MS is associated with subclinical atherosclerosis already in the first postmenopausal decade of this sample of asymptomatic, nondiabetic women. Additional evidence is required to support the causative effect of these associations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]